diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 4147f6541..3974e820f 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+# Version ?
+
+## New features and enhancements
+
+* MKVToolNix GUI: the list of often used languages now contains those from
+  Wikipedia's "List of languages by native speakers" by default. Also by
+  default only those languages will be shown in the language drop-down boxes.
+
+
 # Version 36.0.0 "Is That Jazz?" 2019-08-10
 
 ## New features and enhancements
diff --git a/src/common/iso639.cpp b/src/common/iso639.cpp
index cffb704d5..094ce09e8 100644
--- a/src/common/iso639.cpp
+++ b/src/common/iso639.cpp
@@ -520,7 +520,72 @@ static std::unordered_map<std::string, std::string> s_deprecated_1_and_2_codes{
   { "mol", "rum" },
 };
 
-std::vector<std::string> const g_popular_language_codes{ "chi", "dut", "eng", "fin", "fre", "ger", "ita", "jpn", "mul", "nor", "por", "rus", "spa", "swe", "und", "zxx" };
+std::vector<std::string> const g_popular_language_codes{
+  // Derived from the list of spoken languages sorted by native speakers available at
+  // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
+  "amh",
+  "ara",
+  "aze",
+  "ben",
+  "bho",
+  "bur",
+  "ceb",
+  "khm",
+  "chi",
+  "cze",
+  "dut",
+  "eng",
+  "fre",
+  "ger",
+  "gre",
+  "guj",
+  "hau",
+  "hin",
+  "hun",
+  "ibo",
+  "ind",
+  "ita",
+  "jpn",
+  "jav",
+  "kan",
+  "kaz",
+  "kin",
+  "kor",
+  "kur",
+  "mag",
+  "mai",
+  "may",
+  "mal",
+  "mar",
+  "nep",
+  "ori",
+  "pan",
+  "per",
+  "pol",
+  "por",
+  "pus",
+  "rum",
+  "run",
+  "rus",
+  "snd",
+  "sin",
+  "som",
+  "spa",
+  "sun",
+  "tam",
+  "tel",
+  "tha",
+  "tur",
+  "ukr",
+  "urd",
+  "uzb",
+  "vie",
+  "yor",
+  "zul",
+
+  // "Undetermined" & "No linguistic content"
+  "und", "zxx",
+ };
 
 bool
 is_valid_iso639_2_code(std::string const &iso639_2_code) {
diff --git a/src/mkvtoolnix-gui/util/settings.cpp b/src/mkvtoolnix-gui/util/settings.cpp
index 75b0f0d78..ad3ebf642 100644
--- a/src/mkvtoolnix-gui/util/settings.cpp
+++ b/src/mkvtoolnix-gui/util/settings.cpp
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ Settings::load() {
   m_oftenUsedCountries                 = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedCountries).toStringList();
   m_oftenUsedCharacterSets             = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedCharacterSets).toStringList();
 
-  m_oftenUsedLanguagesOnly             = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedLanguagesOnly,     false).toBool();;
+  m_oftenUsedLanguagesOnly             = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedLanguagesOnly,     true).toBool();;
   m_oftenUsedCountriesOnly             = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedCountriesOnly,     false).toBool();;
   m_oftenUsedCharacterSetsOnly         = reg.value(s_valOftenUsedCharacterSetsOnly, false).toBool();;